Tips and Tricks to Make Your Computing Life Easier

Tips and Tricks to Make Your Computing Life Easier

Well, Day 2 has started out interesting. First of all, KMail refuses to remember what I’ve called "Ham" and "Spam", so all of my e-mails are ending up in the trash folder–marked as read (even though I told it to put "Spam" in the Junk folder and not mark them read). After fighting with that for about 20 minutes, I decided to go back to Evolution. Since I’m forwarding all of my Microsoft e-mail to gmail now anyways, it’s a mute point about which client I use. And Evolution seems to be working right.

The next thing that I had to figure out is how to get all of my folders in Evolution sorted the exact same way. Turns out, that it’s a minor change (a workaround actually). Pick a folder, and set it up the way you want. Then Click on View–> Save Custom View. Click the Replace Existing radio button, and choose Messages. Click OK. After it filters all of the folders (which may take a while), they will all be sorted the way you want. The recommendation that I found was to use Received (instead of Date) if you want to sort by Date. This is because the sender’s Date may be wrong, so the e-mails will show up in various places in the folder. Thanks to Andrew & Susanne’s Blog for the information.

I think once I get everything ironed out, this won’t be so bad. Ironically enough, some of the "issues" that I have in Windows are not present in Linux. For example, I use TweetDeck to read and post to Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, and LinkedIN. In Windows (with a Microsoft Wireless Keyboard and Mouse), my mouse won’t scroll inside of the columns. However in Linux, using the same Microsoft equipment, it scrolls perfectly. Flash sites aren’t as big of a problem in Linux as they are in Windows–although they can still become a OS stopper.

One thing that I don’t find a lot of information on is Antivirus Programs for Linux. Typically if you search for them, you find posts and comments that say "You don’t need an antivirus on Linux because you can’t get a virus on Linux." And you’ll find arguments about whether this is true or sound advice. Personally, I believe in the layered approach to Security. So, regardless of whether or not I ***can*** get a virus on Linux or not, I want to make sure I’m protected. Plus, unless you have a Crystal Ball (or your name is Nostradamus), I don’t believe you when you say "You will never get a virus on Linux."

The layered approach is this: 1. Firewall 2. Antivirus 3. Antispyware 4. Antispam 5. Updating everything regularly 6. Smart surfing. (This could actually be #1 because it needs to be done regardless of the other 5).

I downloaded and installed Avast! Home Edition for Linux (which is Free). While doing a scan, I was configuring my e-mail and checking it, installing different applications, running Pidgin (Yahoo!), aMSN, and Skype, and TweetDeck. And I didn’t notice a performance hit at all (this is on my Toshiba Laptop that I’ve mentioned in other posts). Which leads me to another "like" about Linux. I have yet to see my computer freeze up (like it does in Windows 7 on occasion).

Anyhow, it’s time to post this. There will be another post entitled "Linux Day 1" which may come after this. That’s because I sent it to the wrong e-mail address, so I have to repost it.

One thought on “Day 2 on Linux”

A programmable, mechanical, digital machineCould carryout any calculationCould make decisions based upon the results of the previous calculationComponents: input; memory; processor; outputhttp://camnetway.blogspot.com